


the language of flowers

by aethernity



Category: Super Sentai Series, Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger
Genre: Language of Flowers, M/M, Oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 01:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1113641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aethernity/pseuds/aethernity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Souji finds a flower, and leaves another in reply.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the language of flowers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [you have as many virtues as this daisy has petals](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077508) by [aethernity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aethernity/pseuds/aethernity). 



Souji stares blankly at the table and the two white flowers that weren’t there an hour ago. Under the flowers is a simple white card with the words “To: Souji” written on it in elegant, black handwriting that he’d recognise anywhere. 

Ian is going to get it from him.

Souji nudges the flowers away from the card, thinking hard. Two white flowers, a daisy and a camellia. He has no clue what the daisy is for, but at least he has an inkling of what the other is. Camellia. White camellia. So…Ian is waiting? Waiting for what? The card is of no help either – it simply reads _from, guess who_. 

If this is Ian’s idea of a prank, it’s not very funny.

Flopping down onto the lawn chair, Souji pulls up a search engine on his phone and begins searching for clues. A few minutes and over thirty sites later, Souji is staring incredulously at the lines of text on his phone screen. Even if he still has no idea what Ian is trying to do, at least he is now very sure that Ian is going to get hell from him.

White camellia. _You’re adorable._  
Daisy. _You have as many virtues as this plant has petals._

He can almost hear Ian, somewhere in the city, laughing.

Souji thinks for a while, puts down the wooden sword and picks up the flowers. Brutalising Ian can wait – there’s nothing better, after all, than ruining Ian’s fun.

\---

Ian comes back two hours later to find white petals neatly laid out on the table, forming a question mark. The card, sitting at the end, has had a new line of writing added to it.

_Guessed. Ignored._

Huh. Didn’t work.

Plan B, then.

\---

The second Souji steps into the Spirit Base, he sees Utsusemimaru standing in the middle of the room, staring in the direction of the Zyudenchi shelf. It soon becomes clear why – sitting on the shelf, between two of the Zakutor batteries, is a flower. Souji fights the urge to run out the exit, find Ian (and puncture his chance with whatever girl he’s on a date with), and hit him over the head.

What is he playing at, anyway?

“…is this something to worry about…?” Souji simply shakes his head in answer, and Utsusemimaru sits down at the table, mumbling something about modern Japan’s eccentricity. Souji stares at the flower, pulls out his phone, and texts a friend.

_From: self_  
_To: tsuyoshi  
_ _oy gardening club president, your services are required._

_From: tsuyoshi_  
_To: self_  
_fire away._

_From: self_  
_To: tsuyoshi_  
_2013-12-26 Image 1.png_  
_what the hell is this thing_

_From: tsuyoshi_  
_To: self_  
_a flower._  
_nah just kidding it’s a gardenia._  
_why?_  
_where the hell are you and why is there a yellow stone pillar in the background_

_From: self_  
_To: tsuyoshi_  
_thanks._

Even before the search results on his phone load, Souji has a feeling that he knows what he will find. As it turns out, he’s right - but, he thinks, _secret love doesn't go around putting flowers everywhere_. As he scrolls further down, though, he sees something else.

Gardenia. _You’re adorable._

Tossing the flower aside, Souji hits speed dial and waits. The phone rings barely twice before a familiar voice sounds through the speaker. “Souji? What is it?”

“It’s me. Can I come over? I need to borrow something.”

\---

“Floriography Explained: The Language of Flowers?” Amy raises her eyebrows at the book in Souji’s hand as he climbs down from the ladder. The library at the Yuuzuki residence is quiet except for the sound of Souji’s shoes on the rungs, empty except for the two of them.

“Bedtime reading. “ Amy isn’t convinced. As Souji heads over to the reading table, Amy trails behind him, peering over his shoulder as he flips the book open.

“General, page thirty-three…friendship, seventy-nine…romance, page hundred and eighty-four…. Ah, here we are.” Souji flips the pages to the beginning a chapter in the middle of the book. Amy just stares.

Page two hundred and one. Rejection and Insults.

Huh.

“…hey Amy, can I pick something from your garden?”

\---

A quarter to midnight. Eight hours since he’d put the flower there, Ian notes. More than enough time for it to reach its recipient. As he enters the Spirit Base, he wonders if he’ll find anything there. Find something he does – a flower peeks out between two Zyudenchi on the shelf, but it’s not the gardenia he’d put there earlier.

He picks it up, thinks for a moment, and groans.

Candytuft. _Indifference._

What the hell.

At least Souji’s making an effort to play this game, Ian thinks. Maybe it’s worth another shot.

\---

“Souji! Delivery!” Souji looks up to find a flower barely a centimetre from his nose, occupying his entire field of vision.

Blink. Blink. Daigo insistently shakes the flower a few times, and Souji flinches as it bops him on the nose. Taking it, he reaches for the book lying on the table.

“Who’s it from?” Daigo simply grins and shrugs, stuffing his hands into his pockets, but Souji thinks he knows who anyway. The room is completely silent except for the sound of flipping pages.

Romance. Page hundred and eighty-nine. Jonquil.

_Love me._

Souji stares dumbfounded at the page, flower in hand. Ian has always been irritatingly obnoxious, he knows, but _what the fuck_.

Time for an answer.

The sound of rapidly flipping pages fills the room, before Souji all but bolts out of the Spirit Base. With any luck, he thinks, the florist’s is still open.

\---

Fifteen minutes later, Daigo looks up to find Souji at the entrance. Before he can say anything, Souji thrusts a flower at him.

“Deliver this for me.” Daigo grins, turning to leave. As he heads towards the entrance, he hears pages being flipped furiously, and Souji calls him back a second later. “Deliver this too.” Daigo, slightly surprised, takes the handful of walnuts from Souji, and watches as he disappears out the exit. The book lies open on the table. Curious, Daigo walks over and takes a peek. 

Rejection and Insults. Page two hundred and three. Yarrow-

Before he can read any further, he hears very familiar footsteps, and Ian appears in the room. “Did you give it to him?” he asks. Daigo simply holds out the flower and the nuts.

The look on Ian’s face has him laughing for the next hour. The book remains open.

Yarrow. _Cure for heartache._  
Nuts. _Stupidity._

\---

Souji is hardly amused when Ian shows up at the Spirit Base ten minutes late for the team meeting, _and_ holding another flower. He expects some lousy, cryptic message from Ian, a wisecrack or pick-up line; what he doesn’t expect is for Ian to push him against a wall and kiss him. Hard. In front of everyone else.

The only thing he can say when Ian pulls away is “…oh.”

Ian just holds out the flower, and Souji’s sure he knows what this one means. He takes the flower from Ian, and for once, doesn’t try to hit Ian at all, not even when the other wraps an arm around his waist after everyone has left.

“So, finally a yes?” Souji scoffs at the question. “Not a no, at least.”

\---

Back at the Rippuukan ancestral home, the book lies open next to Souji’s futon, where he’d left it the previous night.

Page fifty-five. Gladiolus.

_Give me a break, I’m really serious._

\---

_Epilogue:_

When Ian wakes up from his nap that evening, the first thing he notices is the little flower next to his Gaburevolver, a green ribbon tied in a bow on its stalk. It makes him smile, and as he twirls the flower between his fingers, Ian wonders what a suitable reply would be.

Ambrosia. _Your love is accepted._

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick clarification: the Japanese do have their own form of the language of flowers (hanakotoba). Seeing as Ian is, in canon, from Europe, most of the meanings given follow the Western form, but poor Souji's slight confusion over the camellia can be attributed to this. The Japanese significance of the gardenia is also mentioned in the story.


End file.
